What is an Entrepreneur?

Time 100 2006 gala, Craig Newmark.

Time 100 2006 gala, Craig Newmark. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What is an Entrepreneur?

by Victor Green

The best way that I can describe what an Entrepreneur is ‘Some people want it to happen. Some wish it would happen. Others make it happen’. That, to me, describes what a true Entrepreneur is.

Entrepreneurs have that special quality, the ability to reinvent something that may have been around for years but they put a new twist on it and make it different and attractive to an audience.

There are two examples that I can cite that will explain what I mean.

For many years kids grew up with a main attraction, the circus. Like many things in life it became stale and repetitive and the public starting losing interest. Then came along an entrepreneur with an idea and reinvented the circus, Cirque de Soleil, and the rest is history.

Coffee, a well-established drink in the USA but someone thought of selling coffee on every street corner, again the rest is history.

My point is that entrepreneurs think outside the box, they look at things from a different perspective. Too many people look at business in black and white, how about 50 shades of grey!

I had examples in my business life when I created businesses that were different, not necessarily new. I put a new slant on ideas and presented them in another form which was acceptable.

When I started my publishing business, the prime objective of a publisher of a trade magazine was to get a readership amongst buyers. I saw an opportunity to reach people who recommended products. This was a totally different approach to the other magazines but my idea was good as the people who made recommendations did so every day. This worked and the magazine was an instant success.

My finance company would be in competition with every bank, or organization, that offered money; a very competitive business. The idea we came up with was to target a specific audience and we choose lawyers. It may sound strange as lawyers earn good money, they do, but they are not too good a running a business.

We realized that and we designed a loan scheme specifically for them. They needed cash at certain times of year to pay their errors and omissions liability insurance and taxes. The amounts were in many cases very large, usually in the millions and had to be paid on time. We created a specific idea which addressed these problems and this took us away from the banking world. We set out to be seen as a specialist lender just for lawyers. It worked very well.

If you are, or want to be, an Entrepreneur you must think an idea through and see why you will be different and better to what is on the market. Create a new approach. The most important thing is that the idea must be good for your customers as well as yourself. To sell an idea it has to make money for those you sell to, this is the way to guarantee success.

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